


Refraction

by checkerboardom



Series: Symposiun [5]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014), The Flash - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Minor Domestic Abuse, Past Character Death, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, episode tag: 1x18
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-26
Updated: 2016-11-26
Packaged: 2018-09-02 10:51:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8664826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/checkerboardom/pseuds/checkerboardom
Summary: Refraction: n. The change of direction of a ray of light, sound, heat, or the like, in passing obliquely from one medium into another in which its wave velocity is different.





	

There's something touching him. Something  running feather-light over the delicate skin on the inside of his right wrist, over the curved black letters and fragile tendons found there. 

 "What're you doing?" He asks as he rolls onto his side and looks over to where Harrison is admiring his soulmark. It's not an unusual thing, especially since Wells has yet to identify --and honestly, he stopped worrying about the fact that he's never seen his lover's mark a long time ago-- but it's something that he hasn't done in a while.

 "You were having a bad dream." Harrison tells him and Cisco frowns, brows knitting together because he doesn't remember having a dream at all. Good or bad.

 "Huh," He says and the other man chuckles, a hand coming up to cup Cisco's face. Or at least, it would have if it weren't for the fact that Cisco's entire body goes rigid, face paling as Harrison pauses mid-motion.

 "Cisco?"

 Cisco shakes his head and -- _What it's like to have a soul mate_ \-- Harrison's voice echoes through his mind like the chiming of church bells, but it's the quick beat of pain that flares up in his chest that sends his heart racing, eyes clenching closed against the sensation.

 "What's wrong?" Wells' voice holds such gentle concern in those two words alone that Cisco begins to relax, heartbeat slowing as he lets his soulmate run a light hand into his hair.

 "I think I slept on my neck wrong." Cisco lies, faking a wince as he tilts his head to the side with an exaggerated groan. Harrison hums and the hand running soothingly through his hair drops down the base of his neck, strong fingers digging into the muscles there as he urges Cisco to tilt his head down. Slowly but surely the tension in Cisco's body melts away. It comes back when his hand lowers further down to his shoulders and the grouping of muscles just below, too close to his heart in a way that he wasn't even aware should make him uncomfortable.

 "Relax." Harrison urges him when he pulls away, voice firm and coaxing as his thumb runs a soothing circle into the top of his spine. He reaches up to move Cisco's hair out of the way, gathering it up in his hand in a familiar kind of pressure and Cisco lets out a breathless laugh.

 "Easy for you to say." Cisco says, only half joking, and Wells huffs out a laugh. "What time is it?"

 "Sometime after six am, why?" Harrison inquires and Cisco turns his head just enough to catch his eye.

 "Just wondering if I'll have enough time to return the favor."

 "Oh," Wells' eyes dilate just the barest bit and Cisco smiles, another laugh escaping him when his soulmate tugs him closer for a kiss that's needy and consuming. It bleeds the tension out of Cisco's body better than the massage did and he turns into it, hands coming up to grip Wells' shoulders as all thoughts of his half-remembered dream disappear.

 

…

 

Barry arrives at Hudson University at nine in the morning, thirty minutes before Eddie and Joe arrive with coffee and a notepad respectively. He can hear Eddie filling Joe in on the identity of their victim before they arrive at the stretcher where Lindsay Kang is zipped into a blue body bag, only her neck and face visible.

 "Hey," He greets, joining them at the stretcher and avoiding Eddie's eyes, because he knows that Eddie is still rankled about lying to Iris and probably isn't his biggest fan at the moment. "So her whole body is covered in these puncture wounds you see on her face. Bite marks maybe. Whatever it was she must have gone into anaphylaxis."

 Joe leans forward to study Kang's face. "Damn."

 "Yeah. The blood samples should tell us everything we need to know." He glances up at Joe as he speaks, but just as quickly returns his gaze to Kang. Her face is littered with punctures, the area surrounding them swelled up by the response of her immune system trying to fight whatever venom was released by the insect that caused the wounds. "I'll  run some tests back at my lab."

 "They can do it faster at STAR Labs." Joe objects and Barry bites back a sigh. Eddie leaves with another officer and Barry doesn't know if he wants him to stay or if he's happy that he's gone. He needs to fix that, but Eddie and Iris' relationship isn't exactly at the top of his list of priorities. Once Wells is dealt with, once things have calmed down, he can focus on them, but not now. Now, now he has a murder to solve.

 "Well, yeah, but I mean… it's just-" He cuts himself off and shrugs because he doesn’t know how to articulate his feelings toward Wells and STAR Labs.

 Joe walks around the stretcher and guides Barry to the other side of the police barrier for privacy, voice concerned when he asks, "It's just what?"

 "It's kind of _weird_ being there right now." He says and that's an understatement if there ever was one. How is he supposed to function while sharing the same space with the man that murdered his mother? There's no guide for this type of thing, no advice for him to follow when it comes to Wells. He's running and he knows it and Joe knows it too.

 "Barry, you know we have to play it cool with Wells." He reminds him as he pulls Barry to a stop and turns to face him. "If he finds out that he suspect him-"

 "I know. I get it." They can't risk Wells finding out, but still, "I think we should tell Cisco and Caitlin. They could help us." He knows that they would, because they need to. He needs them to.

 Joe lets out a world wary sigh. "The more people who know, the more chance Wells is going to find out we're onto him." Barry begins to object but Joe bulldozes over him. "What if one of them slips up or panics? Or what if…"

 He trails off with a look that Barry can't quite place but that still manages to tie his stomach into a knot of dread. "What?"

 "What if they're not on our side?" Joe asks, voice soft, as if he expects Barry to balk at the suggestion, which he does, head shaking in denial.

 "No. Absolutely not. They're not involved in whatever he's planning." He insists, but there's pity in Joe's eyes and Barry can't handle the thought that Cisco and Caitlin, his friends, could betray him.

 Still, Joe continues, "Wells is their boss, their mentor. They've been with him for a long time and… You told me yourself that Wells is Cisco's soulmate."

 "That's not fair, Joe. You know he has no control over that." Barry thinks about his own soulmark,  a snatch of conversation with Iris that's tattooed into his skin like Eddie's first words to Iris are into hers. "Nobody can."

 "It doesn’t matter, Bar. There's loyalty there and I've seen plenty of people make the wrong choice for loyalty." He catches Barry's gaze. "Please, do not include them until we know for sure."

 In the end it's Joe's genuine concern that settles the argument and Barry hangs his head. "Alright." He says and it may feel like a betrayal, but Joe has a point. He has no way of knowing just how close Wells is with Caitlin and Cisco and the fact that Cisco's Identified with him only makes matters worse.

 "Alright." He repeats to himself before gathering the blood samples and heading to STAR Labs.

 Time to face his mother's murderer.

 

…

 

"Death by apitoxin." Caitlin announces an hour after Barry brings blood samples from their murder victim back to the Labs.

 Harrison is all too happy when he announces: "Honeybee venom," thumbs twiddling as he reads over the results of the blood test that Caitlin has projected on the large flat screens within the Cortex and Cisco straightens up from where he's leaning against the console.

 "Bees? Why did it have to be bees?"  He asks as Caitlin replaces the test results with a close up video of a honeybee, a shudder rolling down his spine in response. "Y'all I don’t do bees. Ain't nobody got time for bees."

 Harrison's eyes find his briefly, full of amusement, before returning to the video. "When a honeybee stings the stingers are literally torn from their abdomen and they die."

 "But there were no stingers in the body and no dead bees in the car." Barry shakes his head, obviously confused and curious for answers, while the only thing Cisco is curious about is how far away he can get from this particular case.

 "A honeybee can only deposit zero-point-one milligrams of apitoxin when it releases its stinger." Caitlin adds.

 "Yet Ms. Kang was found with enough venom in her system to kill a herd of elephants. It appears not only is our metahuman controlling these bees, but also increasing their toxicity." Harrison tells the room in general and, really, this all sounds like a big bag of nope. Like a Hitchcock film with tiny death bugs instead of birds.

 Barry snaps his fingers. "Bees communicate by releasing pheromones. Maybe this meta is controlling them via secretion."

 A horror movie, that's what this is, Cisco concludes. "Anyone wanna join me in getting a beekeeper suit?" He asks and he can only see the side of Harrison's face, but he's sure that the other man's lips tick up into a brief smile.

 Across from them, Barry scoffs. "I'm pretty sure I can outrun a bee."

 "Just don't run into a lake." A familiar voice advises from the entrance of the Cortex and they all turn to see Felicity. "The bees will wait for you to come up and then they'll sting you. Discovery Channel. Turns out there's a lot to discover."

 Cisco pauses to mull this new terrifying fact over while Caitlin gives Felicity a small wave in greeting.

 Barry cocks his head to the side, as if looking at a different angle will change what he's seeing. "Felicity, what are you doing here?"

 "Can you guys come outside for a sec?" She asks, hiking a thumb toward the hallway leading out of the Cortex and toward the upper, public levels of the building. They leave through the side entrance where they're least likely to be see and Wells can use the wheelchair access ramp. After a while, Cisco leans on the railing of the ramp, arms propped on the top rung and hips thrust slightly forward. Harrison glances back at him after a couple minutes, eyes seeming to go a darker blue at Cisco's subconscious positioning and Cisco gives him a bright smile. It's rare that they dare to be so open about their relationship while around others, but everyone's attention is on the sky.

 After giving Cisco a particularly predatory smile, Harrison looks over to Felicity. "What exactly are we waiting for, Ms. Smoak?" He asks and she points up, giving a tiny jump of excitement.

 "Up there!"

 "Is it a bird?" Caitlin asks, squinting up at the rapidly approaching shape in the sky and Cisco's first thought is that it's a drone, followed closely by the thought that this deep into the city is definitely a No Fly zone.

 It's a plane." He offers, only to jump back as the "plane" lands in a blast of concrete dust and wind, unconsciously shielding Wells with his body.

 "It's my boyfriend." Felicity announces proudly and Cisco gapes for a second then gathers himself.  There is now a good sized crater in the sidewalk, its creator standing up properly and removing his helmet with a wide grin and a wave.

 "Hi, I'm Ray."

 While everyone else stands around gaping, Cisco steps forward and extends his hand. "Cisco Ramon, and you have to let me look at your suit."

 Ray shakes his hand before looking around at the rest of the group. "I think I landed harder than I should have, but I heard one of you is a doctor…?"

 "That would be me." Caitlin says, having come over her shock. "I'm Dr. Snow, ah, Caitlin Snow. Although, I don’t think I'm the kind of doctor you're looking for. But I can see what I can do."

 "Wonderful." Rays looks back to Cisco and flashes him another grin. "You're welcome to take a look at the suit while she takes a look at me."

 "Dude, phrasing." Cisco says, but he's already rubbing his hands together in excitement, mind going a mile a minute as he takes in as much of the suit as he can. Once they're back in the Cortex, he has Ray remove it onto a hydraulic tilting table and  positions it just right as Caitlin drags Ray to her exam room. Felicity and Barry disappear to another part of the lab, leaving him alone with Harrison.

 "It seems Ray has something quite special in concern to this suit." He observes and Cisco grins.

 "Isn't it the coolest? I have so many questions." He stoops down to study the right leg of the armor where one of the power sources seems to be held, then looks over to Harrison, hair falling into his face at the awkward angle. Wells looks back at him with an expression that he can't quite place besides an undercurrent of sadness and longing, eyes looking through him instead of at him. "What's wrong?"

 Harrison snaps out of his reverie, a hand coming down so that he can run his thumb along the ridge of Cisco's jaw while no one is looking. "Nothing. Just daydreaming, I suppose."

 It's not really an answer, but Cisco leaves it be and leans into Wells' touch, eyes fluttering closed when his thumb tracks over his pulse, the rest of his hand resting over Cisco's throat in a gesture that's achingly familiar. Glancing up, Cisco catches  the other's gaze and holds it.

 "You wouldn't hurt me, would you?" He asks, unaware of what he's actually saying until it's out of his mouth. Harrison's brows furrow, but he doesn’t remove his hand from where it's resting against Cisco's throat.

 "What brought this on?" He's genuinely puzzled and Cisco doesn't know how to tell his soulmate that he has dreams of his murder at the other's hands, literally, while still sounding sane. So he shakes his head and shrugs.

 "I don’t know, it just kind of popped into my head."

 Harrison tilts his head into his hand, elbow propped on the arm of his chair. "You've never been someone to entertain morbid thoughts. But no, I wouldn't hurt you."

  _Unless it's necessary_ , Cisco thinks. He wonders what necessary qualifies as, but then he remembers the fury his soulmate had expressed over Barry getting attacked by a weapon that he built, the slam of the project cage door in his face and the sickening mixture of anger and fear that Wells had inspired in him in that moment. For the first time in their entire relationship, he'd felt fear settle into his stomach and it's a feeling that he never wants to repeat, especially not in relation to Harrison. It's this memory that answers his question and he knows that if it came down to choosing between Barry and himself, he wouldn’t be the one that Wells chooses to save.

 "Ah, my ears  popped, so that's something." Ray announces, effectively pulling Cisco out of his thoughts as Caitlin marches after Ray.

 "You're lucky you didn't break your neck." She chides him. "What is it with billionaires and being superheroes?"

 Ray shrugs and Cisco stands, putting a decent amount of space between himself and Harrison. "So have you picked a name yet?"

 "Uh, I'm kind of partial to the Atom." Ray volunteers and Cisco can't quite hide his grimace. What is it with people naming themselves without consulting him and picking horrible names?

 "You married to that, or…?"

 Harrison cuts in with an amused smile. "Your Atom suit, it's quite the technological advancement, Mr. Palmer. I'm impressed."

 "And he's never impressed." Caitlin adds from where she's seated herself at the control console.

 "Well, thank you. But I can't quite seem to keep it up." He grimaces and Cisco nearly chokes on his own spit.

 Felicity rushes forward and loops her arm around Ray's. "He means the suit."

 "Yeah, I mean the suit." He agrees and out of the corner of his eye, Cisco is sure he can see Barry facepalming.

 "I can attest that everything else works just fine." Felicity continues and Cisco cringes out of secondhand embarrassment. "There's nothing we need to fix in that area."

 "No, uh, the sex is great." Ray hastens to add and yikes, what a train wreck.

 "God, there's two of them." Caitlin sounds slightly horrified. Ray saves himself by turning his attention to Cisco.

 "I know from Felicity that you have been very helpful with Barry and the Flash suit and I was hoping to get another set of eyes on my…" He glances down at Felicity.

 "Problem?"

 "…Problem." He finishes and Cisco raises his hands over his face to hide his grin.

 "Any friend of the Arrow's is a friend of-" Harrison begins, but Cisco cuts him off.

 A chance to pick apart a super suit of armor? "Hell, yes."

 "Wha- Uh, guys, we kind of have a lot going on already." Barry objects, gesturing around the lab, but Cisco's already mentally dismantling Ray's suit, calculating weight and power output and speed. There's no way this baby is going home without him working on it. Still, Barry continues: "There's a metahuman killer that can _control a whole swarm of bees."_

 "Cool." Ray says with a laugh, then glances toward Felicity, who gives him a slight shake of her head. "I mean awful."

 Cisco throws a pleading look Harrison's way and his soulmate wheels around so that he can face Barry fully. "I'm sure Caitlin and I will provide ample support, Barry."

 Cisco makes a mental note to blow him later, gathering up his tablet as he addresses Barry. "And I am going to be happy to sit this one out."

 "You…?" Barry sounds particularly betrayed, but Ray and Felicity came all this way to have him look over the suit, so he doesn't feel guilty in the slightest. He also gets the added bonus of not being anywhere near an angry swarm of killer bees.

 "Ray, why don’t you stay here and work on your suit while Barry and I go grab some Java?" Felicity asks and Cisco turns his attention back to the suit with Ray joining him a few moments later.

 "Okay, tell me everything." Cisco commands and Ray grins, delighted to share his work with a fellow engineer.

 He gestures to the chest of the suit. "So here's the secondary solar energy function. There are multiple power cells that the suit uses to run, but I needed a failsafe in case they get damaged."

 "The energy, is it active or passive?" Cisco asks, then shakes his heads. "It's active, that would be the only way you could control them and maximize the function's effectiveness. We're going to have to move this down by my lab. I don’t have the right tools here."

 The quickest route is the elevator. They both wheel the tilt-table to it and Cisco pushes the button for the floor just above the particle accelerator. The lift lets them off in the room that holds the containment cell and Cisco's spare tool chest. Once they have the suit settled, Ray wanders around the room, obviously curious as he takes in the massive cell and the towers that produce the force field by bouncing energy back and forth so rapidly that it creates a wall of matter-less inertia.

 Pulling his computer stand over, Cisco sets a scan of the suit and sends it onto the data board in front of him. Reaching out, he taps the exoskeleton's belt on the screen. "You're using a beta particle generator and solar power converters as backup power suppliers, but you put solid oxide fuel cells into the belt?"

 Ray looks away from the containment cell and joins Cisco at the board. "Yeah. That's the only other place you can ride the hardware."

 "Hmm. Well, they should be generating enough energy to power the suit." He finishes scanning the suit's schematics and moves to the actual suit itself. "It could be the operating temperature. I mean, you're essentially-"

 "Overheating the circuit. Yeah, I figured."

 Cisco taps his two index figures against his lips. The cells are producing too much energy for the suit to convert properly, which would explain the power lapses. The wiring and resistors will burn out a lot quicker than they should, leaving the suit to rely on its temporary backup energy suppliers instead of its main power source. He turns to Ronnie, "But if we can isolate them with an advanced composite ceramic compound-"

 "We may improve the operating efficiency." Ray grins. "You really are quite clever, Cisco."

  _Some would say I'm the reverse._

 Whatever joy he'd gained by working on the suit fades at Ray's words and

_\-- Suddenly he's in his dream with Wells standing in front of him, a delighted smile on his face. It's a smile that makes his heart race, that floods his body with anxiety so strong that he's sure he's having a panic attack. "_

_You're incredibly clever, Cisco." Wells says and for a moment Cisco forgets how to breath. --_

It's only Ray calling his name that drags him to the present, a look of concern on his face.

 "You okay?"

 Cisco nearly shakes his head because his heart is trying to beat itself out of his chest, but in the end he nods and lies and hopes that his expression doesn’t give him away. "Yeah, I haven't been getting enough sleep, so…"

 Whatever reply that Ray has is interrupted by an alarm going off throughout the building as Caitlin's voice echoes over the PA system. "Cisco, we need you up here."

 "Killer bees are at it again." She announces when they reach the Cortex and Harrison tells him to get a hold of Barry without looking away from the computer in front of him. Cisco sends a text to Barry with the address to Folston Tech and an SOS. A moment later Barry speeds into the Cortex, changes, and leaves in a storm of lightening and wind. When Barry gets to Folston Tech the sound of people screaming in panic echoes through the speakers for a second, then Barry's voice rings through.

 "I'm too late."

 "Why are the bees going after robotics engineers?" Wait. "Where are the bees?"

 "I don't know. There's no sign of them." There's no way that the bees could have found their target, killed him, and left befoe Barry arrived. Nothing is that fast. Unless, "I found them!"

 Cisco pulls up the floor schematics for Folston and overlays the tracker in Barry's suit over them. The red line that represents Barry's movements races through the building, almost too fast for Cisco to see properly.

 "How do I get out of here?!" Barry shouts and the raw panic in his voice sparks something in Cisco, his own panic from earlier coming back full force. He tries to work through it, because Barry doesn’t have time for him to break down.

 "Take the northeast crossways." He tells him, eyes tracking over the schematics. "It's the quickest way out of the building."

 He watches as Barry follows his directions, but instead of leaving the lab he ends up at a dead end and Cisco realizes that the exit is on the southeast side of the building. Barry shouts again, but Cisco barely hears him over the rushing in his ears. He fucked up. He fucked up and now Barry's going to die. The only thing that pulls him out his spiral is the sound of his phone going off and he scrambles to get it out of his pocket and picks up on the second ring.

 "Cisco, Barry doesn’t have a pulse!" Joe shouts and Cisco puts him on speaker, heart racing

 "Step away from him." He runs around the console and to one of the computers, tossing his tablet onto the desk, fingers already flying over the keyboard as he brings up the suit controls.

 "What? Why?" Joe demands, but Cisco can hear him moving back.

 "We need  to jumpstart his heart. There's a defibrillator in the suit."

 He sends the defibrillator controls to Harrison's screen and steps back, allowing Caitlin to take over for him.

 "Charge it to three hundred and sixty joules." Caitlin says and Wells counts it down, but Barry's heart doesn’t restart. Cisco laces his hands behind his head and tells himself to breathe. "400 joules."

 Barry meets her words with a pain gasp, heartrate spiking back into existence and Cisco lets out an explosive sigh. Harrison looks back at him, but he avoids his gaze, a fine tremor settling over his body as the adrenaline fades and is replaced by a headache that makes his vision swim. He squeezes his eyes closed, splashes of color bursting across the back of his eyelids as Barry's labored breathing echoes in the air around them.

 When he opens them again, his soulmate is holding his phone and talking to Joe. "Bring Barry back to the lab so Caitlin can ensure he's okay." He says, hanging up when Joe agrees.

 "I'll wait out front in case Joe needs help carrying Barry." Ray says and there must be something in the air because Caitlin leaves too, citing that she needs to prep her room for Barry's arrival. Harrison  wheels away from the desk so that he can face Cisco. He doesn’t give Cisco his phone back, but keeps it clenched in his fist. The plastic groans in response.

 "You panicked, Cisco." He reaches out and grabs Cisco's arm, turning his wrist so that he can trace over Cisco's soulmark with his thumb. "You never panic. What happened?"

  _You killed me_ , he wants to say, but he can't, so  he settles for the only truth he has. "I really hate bees."

 "This can't happen again." Wells voice is stern, his hold on his wrist tightening until Cisco winces. "We can't afford to lose Barry Allen."

 "I made a mistake!" Cisco struggles to keep his voice level. "I'm human, we make mistakes Wells."

 Something in his soulmates eyes goes flat and he releases his hold on him. "I'm sorry."

 It's rare that he ever apologizes for anything, but now it only serves to make Cisco angry. "For what? For hurting me or for caring more about the Flash than you do your own soulmate?"

 And he's sure of it now, sure that in his dreams Wells had Identified with him. Not waiting for a reply, he leaves Harrison and the Cortex behind, taking the elevator down to where Ray's suit is. It's different being here alone, not scary, but unsettling in a déjà vu kind of way. He paces the room, trying to remember the details of his dream -vision? - but nothing comes. Signing, he sits on the platform of the containment cell and 

 _\-- He's standing again, Harrison in front of him, and he has to look_ up _to meet his eyes._

_"The night that we trapped the Reverse Flash… You almost died." He says and Harrison hums "There were two of you."_

_His soulmate pauses him there by holding up a finger with an indulgent smile and Cisco's feels an awed sort of fear settle over him, legs carrying him forward as another Wells appears._

_"It's an after-image, a speed mirage, if you will." His soulmate stops running, his double vanishing after a moment --_

 "Cisco?" He's pulled out of the dream with a start, sitting up so quickly that Felicity takes a startled step back and his head spins. His headache has only gotten worse. "I'm sorry. I didn’t mean to…"

 "Barry's here?" He cuts her off and she looks like she wants to say more but he stands up and starts walking toward the elevator.

 "He wanted you to look at the suit." She jogs a little to catch up with him and leans against the elevator railing once the doors close. "What happened? Not with the whole bee thing, Caitlin filled me in, but-" She gestures to her eyes. "You're crying."

 Oh. He rubs the saline off his cheeks and blinks, willing his eyes to dry. "I have a really bad headache, so…"

 "Say no more. I think I have some aspirin in my purse."

 The elevator stops. "Felicity?"

 "Yeah?"

 He almost asks her what having Oliver as a soulmate is like, what it felt like before she knew about Green Arrow, knowing that he was lying to her. Then the doors open and he loses his chance. "Thank you."

 "No problem… I think?"

 Caitlin is getting blood samples from Barry so Cisco goes straight to the suit and releases the lightning bolt emblem with a twist of his wrist. He can feel Harrison's eyes on him as he begins to look over the defibrillator beneath it, but he does his best to ignore him. It's easy to see that the charging wires are fried, in fact the whole thing is pretty much useless now, but he fiddles around with it until Barry comes in and props himself against the command console. He gives the suit a consolatory pat and turns to face his friends.

 "That is it for the defibrillator. It's completely fried." He announces and Barry nods. He'll have to repair the suit.

 "You're lucky to be alive, Mr. Allen." Harrison says and he must make a face because Felicity glances at him before leaning into Barry's space.

 "I was very specific that you not die."

 "Yeah, it's a pretty big thing for her." Ray adds.

 Barry looks up at Cisco, the slump of his shoulders defeated and tired. "Cisco, what happened? I followed your instructions exactly."

 There's something accusatory in his tone and Cisco holds out his hand to cut off whatever Harrison opens his mouth to say. "I'm sorry. I led you the wrong way. The schematics that we had, they weren't up to date."

 Harrison shoots him a look and Cisco knows that he knows he's lying, but Barry looks halfway to scandalized. "They weren't up to date? What do you mean? That's never happened before."

 "And what?" Felicity jokes. "You think Cisco was trying to get you killed?"

 "No. Why would he do that? That doesn’t make any sense."

 "I know…" Felicity stares at Barry for a moment, clearly confused. "That's why I was joking."

 Barry opens his mouth, then closes it, and Harrison speaks to grab his attention. "Barry, it's our job to protect you and today we failed. But that'll just serve as a warning for all of us to be more vigilant in the future." His soulmate looks at him as he's talking and Cisco inhales sharply, the anger from earlier coming back before being replaced by a bone-deep wariness.

 "Good news!" Caitlin breaks through the tension in the room with a smile. "The apitoxin is out of your body. Your levels are back to normal."

 "Terrific." Barry stands up properly and vanishes in a streak of lightning, then reappears dressed in a grey suit and tie. "Ray, Felicity, we're going to be late."

 "Are you sure that's wise, Barry?" Harrison asks, followed by Caitlin's, "You just died."

 Cisco feels his heart sink. "Maybe you should order in tonight." Because whatever safety that the Flash provides is going to leave with Barry. Then he realizes that he's overreacting, that he's actually scared of his soulmate because of a dream that he can't even remember fully.

 "Yeah, we could totally cancel." Ray offers, but Barry shakes his head.

 "I'm fine. Alive. Hungry, alright?" He's already walking out of the Cortex, calling over his shoulder: "Let's go."

 There's a heavy silence once the three of them are alone.

 "That was weird."

 "Yeah." Caitlin agrees. "Why didn't we get invited to dinner?"

 Neither Cisco nor Harrison answer her. Instead, Wells asks Cisco to follow him and leads the way out of the Cortex. He stops halfway down the sloping hallway, turning to face Cisco as be folds his hands in his lap. "There's something wrong." He says. "Something you're not telling me."

 His voice is nothing but gentle, imploring even, but a part of Cisco knows that telling his soulmate about the dream -the nightmare- would be a bad idea. So he stays silent, hugging his arm to his chest as Wells waits for an answer. When none comes after a few moments, his soulmate sighs and holds out a hand, palm up. Cisco takes it and allows himself to be tugged down until he's nearly in Harrison's lap.

 "Nothing's changed for me." He says, using his free hand to tilt Cisco's face toward his. "Even though I haven't Identified, my feelings for you are the same as they've always been, if not greater. Barry Allen, while important, isn't worth the loss of your love, Cisco, or your confidence in me. I need to know that you trust me, just like you always have."

 His words make something in Cisco's chest go tight and when he kisses him, Harrison frames his face in his hands, thumbs tracking over his cheekbones.

 "I do trust you." Cisco murmurs between kisses that are more desperate than they should be and it feels like a lie. Afterwards they simply breathe each others air, foreheads pressed together until Cisco straightens and puts space between them. "I should go work on fixing Barry's suit. We can… talk, finish later. Just not now."

 He leaves Wells in the hall and goes back to the Cortex, only to see Caitlin desperately looking around with a fire extinguisher clutched in her hands.

 "There's a bee in here." She calls just before the alarms begin to blare and Cisco runs to the control console to grab the energy gun that he keeps in the bottom drawer. When Harrison comes back into the room, Cisco already has his back pressed to Caitlin's, both of them turning to try and spot the little intruder. There's a buzz to his right and Cisco fires, burning a hole through the desk as Cait sprays a cloud of evaporating fluorocarbon into the air.

 "Did I get it?" He asks, then calls out: "I think I got it."

 Caitlin hunches further over the extinguisher. "Where is he?"

 She stiffens and Cisco glances over, freezing when he spots the bee headed straight for Wells. He can't shoot it, not without risking hitting Harrison and if Caitlin uses the extinguisher, they'll lose sight of it. So he does the only thing he can and starts toward the bee, but suddenly, Barry races through the room, holding out a test tube by the time he comes to a stop.

 "Thank you." Harrison says and Cisco changes his trajectory so that he can take the tube, holding it as far away from his body as possible as he and Caitlin run to the nearest microscope. He doesn't risk taking it out, but raises the scope's lense to fit the tube underneath and fiddles with the dial on the side to bring it into focus.

 "That is one odd looking bee." Caitlin leans over his shoulder to get a better look and Cisco's brows furrow. He adjusts the focus again, zooming in because…

 "That's because it isn't a bee at all." He looks up at Caitlin. "It's a robot."

 "No way." She breathes, then pushes at his side so he'll move, ducking down to take his spot. Cisco lets her and stands, walking quickly back into the Cortex and past Harrison, who asks him where he's running off to.

 "I gotta grab something, hold on." This time he goes to his actual workroom and digs through his cabinet. He needs his microscope adapter and the video camera that's been collecting dust since he bought it. The camera is still on the top shelf and he reaches up to grab it, but the adapter is nowhere to be found. "Where are you?"

 "What are you looking for?" Barry asks and Cisco stops long enough to see him leaning against the doorframe before running across his lab to his tool chest.

 "My microscope adapter. I wanna get a better look at the bee without bending over Caitlin's desk for the next hour."

 "Oh," There's a burst of air and lightning, then Barry's in front of him, adapter in hand. "You can borrow mine."

 Cisco accepts it with a grin and begins fitting the video camera to the adapter as he walks, but Barry grabs ahold of his arm and tugs him back. "Cisco, I… What's it like? Being Dr. Wells' soulmate?"

 "What do you mean?"

 Barry opens his mouth then closes it with a sigh. "I mean, was he always… I don’t know. Nevermind."

 "How do you know we're soulmates?" Cisco asks and Barry shrugs, flushing in embarrassment.

 "When Snart took you- I've never seen Wells worry like that. And I saw your soulmark after you collapsed and realized you had Identified."

 Cisco turns the adapter over in his hands. "I identified the second time we met. He introduced me to Hartley and complimented me. He does that a lot, tells me how… clever I am." He looks up at Barry. "Why are you asking me this?"

 "If I told you that Wells was dangerous…"

 "To who?" Cisco scoffs, defensiveness rising in his chest. "Me? He wouldn't. He wouldn’t hurt me, Barry." Except that he had. In his dreams, in his memories, his nightmares. "Harrison was the first person to tell me that I was worth loving, that I was doing something worth wile with my life. You want to know what it's like to have him as a soulmate? It's like living your entire life without anyone ever noticing you and then meeting someone that tells you that you are amazing in every way you never thought you were. That's what it's like."

 "Cisco. I didn’t mean-" Barry starts, following him when he stalks out of his room but Cisco ignores him. Harrison gives him a comforting smile when the two of them reach the Cortex, Felicity and Ray arriving at the same time.

 "What happened?" Felicity demands. "Barry said there was an SOS."

 "We had a bit of a bug problem." Harrison informs her as Cisco sets up the adapter and video camera. Once he gets the image set up properly, he hits record on the camera and goes to the desktop to set up streaming of the video to the monitors in the Cortex. "Ah, thank you, Cisco."

 "So this is our bee." Felicity leans forward, eyes squinting behind her glasses. "It's a robot. That's-"

 "Unbelievable." Cisco suggests. If he wasn’t terrified of getting stung, he'd take it apart and study every aspect of it, every circuit and wire. "This bots got a three-hundred-and-sixty degree vision system. I mean, we're talking multiple micro-cameras all coming from various angles at the same time. Which means-"

 "It can see all around the room at once. That is-"

 "Amazing." Cisco and Ray say at the same time, both of them grinning.

 "Disturbing." Caitlin mutters, look mildly repulsed while Harrison crosses his arms.

 "It's also next-gen hardware that's nowhere near the market."

 "So we're not dealing with a metahuman." Felicity starts and Barry finishes for her. "It's just a mad scientist."

 Harrison nods toward the screen. "Cisco, you said the second victim, Bill Cipher, was a robotics engineer. Let's cross reference his previous employers with those of Dr. Kang."

 Felicity pushes Cisco to the side when he begins typing, taking over herself. "Allow me. Mama's been away from the keyboard for _far too long._ "

 Carlisle and Kang's employee snapshots appear on the monitor and Barry studies it with a frown. "They both worked at Mercury labs."

 Harrison hums, a smile tilting his lips up. "Call Joe. I think it's time we pay a visit to an old friend."

**Author's Note:**

> The rating will probably go up in the next chapter. But more importantly, it's this series' one year anniversary!


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